


The Prince's Advisor

by de_scientia



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Childhood Friends, Fluff, Gen, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-10
Updated: 2020-05-10
Packaged: 2021-03-02 17:01:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,056
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24100261
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/de_scientia/pseuds/de_scientia
Summary: A very small boy takes a very big step into the rest of his life.
Relationships: Noctis Lucis Caelum & Ignis Scientia
Comments: 10
Kudos: 39





	The Prince's Advisor

**Author's Note:**

> This will eventually be the first chapter of a much longer story spanning many years in Ignis's life but you know what it's been rotting on my hard drive for like 2 years and not doing anyone but me any good there, so have some Ignis fic. (It does function as a standalone in the meanwhile. <3 )

**Prince Noctis 4, Ignis 6.**

—

They told him he was getting a brother. 

They told him all sorts of other things about it too, of course: that he would be very important, that it was a big responsibility, that it would make their family very proud, that he would work for the prince and the king. 

_The king._ That was scary. Ignis had met him once before and he didn’t know what to make of him. He‘d been expecting a much larger and more imposing man, maybe with a long fur cape and a giant crown of jewels like kings had in the stories, but he was just a man in a suit who didn’t look so terribly different from his parents except that everyone had to bow to him. They made sure Ignis knew how, too, and that he always called him ‘Your Majesty’ and said please and thank you, which you should always do anyway but it was especially important when it was the king. 

He’d asked Ignis things like what kind of books he liked to read and whether he did well in school. That was the other thing that they told him would be different— if Ignis said yes, he would leave his school with all his classmates and go to school at the Citadel by himself, where he would have his own special teachers. He was almost all the way through first grade already, and he liked his friends and his teacher and he wasn’t sure he wanted to leave them, but he supposed as long as he still got to have recess and all the books that he liked, that’d would be all right. 

You will, they told him. You’ll have all the books you like and they’ll only be yours, and you’ll get to have recess with the prince. 

The _prince_. Playing with him. 

Isn’t the prince little? he had asked. 

Just a little younger than you, they had said, but you’ll get to be like a big brother to him. Wouldn’t you like to be a big brother, Ignis? I bet you’d be a good one. 

Oh, and he _did_. He wanted that very much. He had asked his parents for a little brother before but he was told that was up to the gods and not little boys. Something about Father’s health. He didn’t quite understand and his questions never seemed to get fully answered in that maddening way that grown-ups had of avoiding telling children things and thinking they won’t realize they’re being held out on. 

But now Ignis _could_ have a little brother, if only he said yes and agreed to leave behind his friends at school and his teacher Mistress Cotilly, who also made a point of telling him how proud he should be that the king had selected _him_ over all the other little boys to become the prince’s advisor. 

It was such a big and important decision... All the grown-ups were in a titter about it. And they were asking _him_ to make it. 

Yes, he had said. Yes, I would like that very much. I’ll be a good advisor and the best big brother, and I’ll even let the prince play with any of my toys that he wants to. 

Now they were on their way to the Citadel, where Ignis would meet the prince for the first time. The king would be there too and his parents were dressed very nicely. Mother was even wearing a hat— one of those funny little ruffly ones that sat at an angle atop her lovely blonde hair, which she’d had Miss Eliza do up as she did when Mother and Father attended official events. 

They made Ignis wear his good trousers with a gray vest and shiny new shoes that were a little uncomfortable to walk in. They weren’t very different from the shoes he wore to school, but those ones had gotten scuffed a little so his parents said he needed brand new ones because you had to look your absolute best when in _audience_ with the king. (That made it sound like they were going to the theater and the king might be performing on a stage, but they had explained this was not always what the word meant. Sometimes it just meant that a very important person was going to make time to see you, and you had to honor that by dressing up nice.)

The Citadel was a very tall and elaborate building with four huge towers connected with bridges in the sky, and it was at the end of the biggest street in the city with a huge plaza in front of it. They sometimes sat there on very nice days when Mother and Father took him to lunch nearby. All sorts of people spent time in the plaza: families and street performers and businessmen and food carts. It always smelled delicious and sounded like a celebration. There was a fountain in the middle that children splashed in and ordinarily Ignis might feel a little bit sad that they were playing and he was not, but today he was on his way to something _important_. 

They strolled right in with their heads held high, and when it was their turn at the front desk Mother told the lady behind it, “We have an audience with His Majesty at two o’clock. Our son is Ignis Scientia, the prospective Advisor to Prince Noctis.” Then they had to go through security and have their pictures taken and wait a very long time and receive plastic identification cards and wait some more, and Ignis could hardly stand how long they waited so Mother sat him next to her and read a book with him until he forgot to notice how much time had passed. 

The king lived in a humongous room way high up in the sky (or so Ignis thought until they explained to him that the king did not _live_ in this room; he merely did his business here, and lived in a different room somewhere else in the Citadel) and even the hallway outside where they waited was huge and elaborate and had shiny black marble pillars and gold framed pictures on the walls. He wanted to touch the marble pillars, feel them cool and glossy under his fingers, and maybe walk around them and count how many times he could line his steps heel to toe around its base (it seemed like a lot), but for some reason Mother would _not_ let him play even if he was very good and quiet about it and wasn’t going to dirty his nice clothing at all. 

“Sit here, love,” she instructed quietly, patting the chair next to her and looking very much like it was the first day of school and she hadn’t any friends. 

Ignis sulked, but obeyed. His father patted his hand from his other side, and drew his attention to the paintings lining the walls instead.

“Can you name any of these kings and queens, Ignis?”

Ignis shook his head. 

Father pointed at the portrait directly across from them. “Go read that one, and tell me what it says.” 

He did as told, then came back and reported syllable by syllable and numeral by numeral: “In-vic-tus Lucis Caelum, Rex, X, C, V, I.”

”Do you know which number that is?”

Ignis shook his head. 

“That’s number ninety-six, and ‘rex’ means ‘king,’ so he was the ninety-sixth king of Lucis.”

Ignis nodded, and wondered if he would need to know all of them. 

Father looked up and down the hall and pointed at the portrait of a stiff-looking woman several frames away. “What is her name, Ignis?”

But before he could scamper off and retrieve this information, the big black doors opened and Father caught him by the shoulder and turned him toward the man who stood in the doorway in big flowing robes. Mother picked up her purse and stood with her hands clasped in front of her, and Father stood, too. 

The man spoke in the big booming voice of someone who had a very important announcement to make, and it echoed off the black marble walls. “Lord and Lady Veritas Scientia, His Majesty Regis Lucis Caelum will now grant you audience.”

Father ushered him forward by the shoulders and Mother reached down for Ignis’s hand. “Come, darling.”

The next room was even larger than the previous one, and where there had been somberness and gloom in the long, imposing hallway, sunlight poured into the throne room through ceiling-high paned windows that flanked the throne and the path that led to it. There was a large stairway at the end of that path that was even bigger and had even more stairs than the one in the foyer of their home, and just like that one it split in two ways at the very top that actually led to the same place, and Ignis wondered if the king had a favorite side for going up and down or if he just picked one at random. 

He was standing quite regally at the very top, and there was a boy a little younger than Ignis with black hair and big blue eyes standing next to the king’s throne and poking his finger along the crevices of the intricate carvings in the armrests. He and Ignis looked at each other in that way that children had of immediately locating other children present and assessing them for potential friendship, and then the other boy went back to examining the carving in the wood, perhaps even more closely than before. 

Mother and Father stopped at the middle platform, and Father bowed and Mother curtsied at the exact same time, so Ignis bowed, too.

“Lord Scientia. Lady Scientia. Thank you both for taking the time to meet with us this afternoon.” The king didn’t bow at all, but he had a very warm smile on his face and Ignis once again felt that mixture of liking him and being afraid of him at the exact same time. The king was wearing a black cape fastened with a gold chain and had his hands clasped in front of him, and then he unclasped them to gesture gracefully to the space next to him. “You may join me on the top platform today. I am afraid the prince is feeling quite shy, and likes to stay close to home.”

The prince didn’t look up at all, but he frowned and probably pretended not to notice he was being talked about. 

The Scientias ascended the last staircase (they chose the side that the king was standing on) and Father stood behind Ignis with his hands resting on his shoulders. 

Beside them, Mother curtsied again and gave her loveliest smile. “It is our pleasure to be here, Your Majesty. Words cannot express the depth of our eternal gratitude for the opportunity His Majesty has so graciously provided our son.”

“The pleasure is ours. Ignis is a bright young boy, and I believe he will fare spectacularly.” The king turned his attention to Ignis then, and smiled warmly. Father lightly squeezed his shoulders.

“And a pleasure to see you again, Ignis,” said the king. “Do you have any new wisdom for me today?”

“Invictus Lucis Caelum was the ninety-sixth king of Lucis,” he reported dutifully. “Your Majesty.”

The king looked very pleased. “That’s quite correct. Thank you for telling me.”

Ignis smiled proudly. The prince continued quietly picking at the carvings in the throne.

“I understand you also have something else you would like to tell me today, Ignis?” prompted the king.

Oh. Father tapped his left arm and released him. Right, it was time for that.

Ignis stepped forward, balled his left hand into a fist across his chest, and bowed from the waist. “Your Majesty,” he enunciated clearly and slowly with all the halting stiffness of a rehearsed line, “I would like, to formally accept my position, as Prince Noctis’s, Royal Advisor.”

The king looked pleased as pie, and Ignis looked up at Mother and she was smiling so brightly down at him, too. Ignis kept it cool because he was important now, and the prince was still not doing much of anything at all.

“I’m so glad,” the king extolled. “I think you will do a wonderful job in our service. Just as there has been a long line of kings, so too has there been a long line of Royal Advisors, a king’s most trusted companion. That is why we choose one for this position while you are still young, not only to begin your education as early as possible, but so that you and my son may grow side by side.”

The king walked over to the prince as he spoke, and he gently placed a hand on his shoulder. The prince looked up at the king, and he stopped playing with the throne and shuffled away from it, but he still stayed kind of away from everyone else and looked down at his shoes and up at the ceiling and he gently swung his arms around but he looked anywhere except at anything that was a person. Ignis worried at his lip and wondered how he was to become friends with such a boy, until he recalled that chewing his lip was not good manners in front of the king and the prince and so he stopped doing that. 

But the king did not seem concerned at all. He took a deep breath and looked out across the empty throne room, and there was sort of a sad smile on his face and maybe a little bit of pride. “Listen well,” he commanded, and Ignis did so, but the king was still silent for a few more moments and Ignis thought that what he had to say must be very important.

“A king cannot lead by standing still,” said the king, and that made sense to Ignis because a king probably had to move around a lot. “A king pushes on always, accepting the consequences and never looking back.”

He turned to Ignis then, and leaned down so that he was closer to Ignis’s level. His parents were still behind him, but the king had words that were meant just for _him_ and so Mother and Father were quiet and patient just like Ignis had to be when grown-ups were talking to each other. Ignis nodded solemnly to the king, to show that he understood.

“That said,” His Majesty continued, “a king can accept nothing without first accepting himself.” The king smiled gently and knowingly at Ignis, then stood to his full height again and placed a hand on the prince’s shoulder. The prince looked nervous and uncomfortable, but he followed his father’s lead obediently and shuffled toward the Scientias.

“Should he stand still, I ask you to stand by him and lend him a hand—as his friend…”

The prince started to look down at his shoes again, but the king gently guided him forward by his shoulders and he made sure not to look at the floor anymore. He looked even more nervous though, as though Mother and Father might bite him (they would certainly _not_ , and although Ignis could not see them, they gazed warmly and kindly upon the young prince as any faithful subjects and parents of a school-aged child might) and as though Ignis himself were a completely unknown quantity. 

“...And as his brother.”

A _brother_. The prince— his _brother_.

Ignis swelled with pride, but the prince looked _very_ uncertain about this whole thing. His bright blue eyes were large and terrified, and he looked very scared of Ignis even though Ignis did not think he was very scary at all.

“Please,” implored the king, “take care of my son.”

Now, Ignis _had_ suffered a first day of school before, and he hadn’t any friends and he didn’t know how to make any. Mother had told him to just approach a classmate and say, _‘Hello, would you like to be friends?’_ but Ignis felt very silly asking such a thing because how was he to know if he would like to be friends with someone or not? Maybe they had very interesting toys but were not an interesting person at all. That was why Ignis had gotten into the habit of saying, _‘Hello, I’m Ignis. Would you like to play together?’_ and leave the decision of friendship for later. (For a while, he had been explaining upon introductions to other children why he wouldn’t like to be their friend just yet but might like to be in the future, but Mother had told him to stop doing that.)

This seemed a little like that, Ignis thought, except they couldn’t play right now and the prince looked like the one who hadn’t any friends. So Ignis smiled warmly and he didn’t say anything at all; he just held his hand out to the prince.

It was as though a great reveal had been made to Prince Noctis, and all at once he looked excited and relieved. He clasped Ignis’s hand in both of his, and he smiled so happily that Ignis thought maybe they would be friends right away after all.

“Hello,” he said. “I’m Ignis. It’s very nice to meet you, Your Highness.” (Mother had agreed that was usually an okay thing to say, except the ‘Your Highness’ part of course because that was only for the prince.)

The prince beamed happily at Ignis, and then looked up at his father while still holding Ignis’s hand. 

The king gestured toward Ignis with a bemused smile on his face. “Introduce yourself, son.”

“I’m Noctis,” said the prince to Ignis, and then he let go of his hand and ran behind his father’s legs.

The king crouched down and placed one hand around Noctis’s back so that he was beside him and couldn’t hide, and gestured again toward Ignis with his other hand. “What do you say, Noct? Do you like him? Do you think you can be friends?”

Noctis looked at Ignis and nodded, then shyly began chewing on the string of his sweatshirt hood. The king removed the string from Noctis’s mouth and stood.

“Then we are pleased to accept you into our service, Ignis.”

The king shook both his parents’ hands, and then shook Ignis’s hand too.

“Thank you again, Your Majesty,” said Father.

Mother agreed, “We are overjoyed to be of service to the Crown.”

“My chamberlain will be in contact with you, and my Advisor. Ignis will assume both of these roles for Noctis when he is older, but my own Advisor’s situation is rather unique. You will also soon make introductions with Master Etienne Perdoceaux, the Citadel’s tutor, who will assume responsibility for Ignis’s education beginning this autumn. Given the current time of year, you may wish to have Ignis complete the first grade of his current curriculum, and that will be permissible; Master Perdoceaux will begin with him at a second grade level.”

The grown ups began talking about things that had to do with Ignis but it wasn’t really things he understood, and besides which he had a new brother who was so much more fascinating than all that. He knew this was an important place and they had to be very good and quiet and they couldn’t play here, but the prince kept looking at him like something was very funny, and when Ignis looked back, Noctis clapped his hands over his mouth and ran behind the throne. The grown ups didn’t seem to notice _at all_ , and well, that was simply hilarious. 

Ignis could not help it. He began giggling, in front of his parents, in front of the king, and in front of his parents _talking_ to the king, which was perhaps the worst crime on Eos. Then he could not _stop_ giggling, because sometimes the funniest thing in the world was when something wasn’t even very funny at all but you were laughing at it anyway. 

Father nudged him sharply. 

“I dare say,” interjected the king, “is there something on my face?”

Ignis shook his head very quickly, and he covered his mouth and his face was very warm, and he was afraid to say anything at all in case he started laughing again so he only pointed at the prince, who was laughing too. 

Noctis squealed and darted behind the throne. 

The king looked at Noctis, then turned back to Mother and Father. “They will have time to bond over the summer, as well. Giggle to their hearts’ contents, even.”

His Majesty clasped his hands together, and everyone understood that was the end of the conversation. “My Lord and Lady Scientia, I bid you farewell for now, as my schedule is unforgiving and it is sorely past time I reunited my son with his governess. I look forward to seeing you and Ignis at the Citadel, not long after the paperwork is signed, I imagine. Indeed, I am sure the boys will like to become acquainted sooner rather than later.”

Mother curtsied, and Father bowed. “Your Majesty is most gracious,” said Mother. 

The man in the billowy robes escorted them down the stairs and to the exit of the throne room. Father took his hand and Mother smiled big and brightly, but when Ignis looked back, the prince was standing by his father’s throne and waving sadly, so Ignis waved, too. 

When they were back out in the long, dark hallway with the giant marble pillars and the portraits on the walls, Mother crouched down and swept Ignis into a hug, kissing both of his cheeks and mussing his hair in a manner she would have had a fit about had it been before they saw the king. “Oh, you’ve done _so_ well, my love.”

“You’re not angry about the laughing? I’m sorry, the prince was being funny.”

“All’s well that ends well with the king, darling. You’ve been so very good, we’ll consider it an exception.” She took his hand and started toward the elevator. “And mind that you don’t ever blame things on the prince.”

“A moment, Laure.”

Mother halted, and Father gestured for Ignis to follow him with a curious smile on his face. He was standing by a woman’s portrait some yards away, and when Ignis joined him, he pointed to it. 

“What does this one say, Ignis?”

He read the placard. “Asta S—” He gasped. “Scientia!” He pointed at the name and looked at Father to see if he, too, was seeing this.

Father simply nodded with a pleased smile and gestured for Ignis to read the rest as Mother joined them.

“Asta Scientia Lucis Caelum, regina I-X.”

“Do you know which number that is?”

Ignis thought for a moment. “...Six?”

Father chuckled, but shook his head. “X is ten, and I is one, and when the one comes before a higher number you subtract it. Ten minus one is…”

“Nine!”

“That’s right. She was the ninth queen of Lucis, a very long time ago.”

Ignis looked at the painting again expecting to find some familiarity, but there was nothing exceptional-looking about her. She had dark hair and dark eyes like a lot of people did. Like Father did. People told Ignis he didn’t look Lucian at all, but that was because he had blond hair like Mother.

“Was she related to us?” he asked.

“Distantly,” replied Father, and he took his hand and they began strolling toward the elevator again. “Insomnia is a large city, but it’s smaller than its history. Every descendant of the twelve noble houses alive today traces his or her lineage back to the first king.”

Ignis looked down the hallway and wondered how long it stretched and what other stories the other portraits had.

“You will spend many years between these walls, Ignis,” said Father. “Remember always that it is your history as well.”

They stopped at the elevator, and Mother allowed him to push the button. Then they treated him to macarons and a milkshake at the fancy bakery beside the Citadel and they sat and ate it in the plaza and he even got to buy two new books on the way home, so it was a very good day indeed.

**Author's Note:**

> pls just imagine what it must be like to be Ignis Scientia's mother, that is all. -xoxo ravy


End file.
